Former Umno leader Khairuddin Abu Hassan has lodged a police report against Pertubuhan Minda Sosial dan Prihatin (PMSP) leader Ramesh Rao for asking the police to beat up former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"Ramesh, please don't act like a street thug. A person can still be a leader if one looks ugly, but the problem is if you have ugly manners don't hope to be one," he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

In his police report, Khairuddin said he believed Ramesh had the intention to 'intimidate with intend to injure' Mahathir.

"It is a threat with wilful intent to hurt Mahathir and this is against the law of the land," read a digital copy of the police report sighted by Malaysiakini .

Khairuddin said the pro-Najib NGO chief's remarks smacked of threats and was unbecoming of an NGO leader that supposedly espoused social awareness.

Khairuddin related that when he himself disagreed with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak over the 1MDB scandal, he too lodged police reports but maintained his decorum and acted only within the boundaries of the law.

Yesterday, Ramesh lodged a police report against former prime minister Mahathir and the 'Save Malaysia' group, for allegedly trying to oust Najib through undemocratic means

This was over the Citizens Declaration last Friday which called for the removal of Najib from power by legal means while implementing institutional reforms.

Ramesh had also claimed that the group has hired 250 buses to ferry 100,000 paid protesters to a gathering on March 27.

March 27 is when former law minister Zaid Ibrahim plans to hold closed-door gathering between Umno rebels and the opposition to discuss how to remove Najib from office.

Ramesh had said that if Mahathir joined this protest, police should lock up and beat up the former premier.

"Let him (Mahathir) get beat up like I was beaten up (during the 1998 reformasi rally). Beat him up until the teeth fall out," Ramesh told the media outside the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters.